Yankees 9, Red Sox 4: Two homers for Russell Martin. I’d say more, but apparently this game was force-fed to the nation by FOX, even in places where the other FOX regional games should probably have been going. Such as Macon, Georgia. Really: Braves-Phillies are playing and Macon, Georgia gets the Yankees. That makes sense.

Marlins 7, Astros 5: Hanley out with a bum leg moved Donnie Murphy to short and put Greg Dobbs in at third and he hit a big homer and had three RBI. That’s how Wally Pipp lost his job, right? Oh, wait, no, it was nothing like that at all.

Athletics 1, Twins 0: Gio Gonzalez is 2-0 with an 0.69 ERA in his first two starts. BTW: how does a 1-0 game with only 11 total hits between the teams last three hours and five minutes?

Phillies 10, Braves 2: In the 26 years I’ve been watching Braves baseball, I can’t remember a player who has abused the Braves more than Carlos Ruiz abuses the Braves. Chooch’s pinch hit grand slam put this one out of reach.

Royals 3, Tigers 1: Bruce Chen looked good. If you would have told me a few years ago that he’d still be in the league in 2011 I would have said you were insane.

Dodgers 4, Padres 2,Dodgers 4, Padres 3: L.A. wins the resumption of the game that was suspended on Friday night. And of course it had to go 11 innings. Then Kuroda shut ‘em down in the nightcap.

Giants 3, Cardinals 2: Colby Rasmus was a temporary hero via a go-ahead homer in the seventh and then Colby Rasmus, well, he wasn’t a goat, exactly, because get got close to the ball, but Miguel Tejada‘s two-run double with two outs in the bottom of the ninth just eluded his glove. La Russa probably needs a scapegoat right now, so maybe it will do.

Indians 2, Mariners 1: Cleveland is 6-2. That is not a misprint. Although don’t book my seat on the bandwagon just yet.

Angels 6, Blue Jays 5: Dan Haren gets the win in relief. Really? Yep: 14 inning games that occur on the day you’re scheduled to do between-starts throwing will do that for a guy. You don’t want to abuse this kind of thing, but I’ve often thought that a team could go with fewer than 12 freaking pitchers on the roster if they were willing to use an offday starter as an emergency bullpen arm. After all, that last arm in the pen doesn’t throw in any given game most of the time. It’s more of a security blanket thing for managers. I’d rather have the extra position player.

I find it funny that when Marcum dominated the Braves last week, McCann was quoted as talking about how he has the advantage because they haven’t seen him before. (sounds like excuse making to me). Then the Braves and their fans rave about their young pitchers.

Hey Brian… that’s why Beachy has done well too – hitters haven’t seen him. The Phillies hitters saw him last year and so yesterday he wasn’t nearly as dominating.

Same can be said for Kimbrel and Venters. although they are obviously much more talented than Beachy. the question will be can they make adjustments after the hitters adjust to them?

McCann is always whining about something. Last year he called Citizens Bank Park a “High School field” while giving a back-handed compliment to Ryan Howard. Today he had a shouting match with Carlos Ruiz after he whiffed. He’s a sore loser.

bigxrob - Apr 10, 2011 at 8:33 AM

You need to take the Indians opponents into account to put their record into perspective. 3 of those wins came against the 1 – 7 Red Sox. While the record is nice and all, I wouldn’t start printing the play-off tickets just yet, let’s see how they do against some better teams.

That was such bullshit in the Jays/Angels game. Yunel Escobar got called out for “interference” for blocking Callaspo when all Escobar did was run straight on the base line to third base. Even the replays show he didn’t do anything. Because of that stupid call Encarnacion’s RBI single didn’t count, because Callaspo waited till Escobar passed him to throw the ball and missed first. That was the third out, so the run didn’t count. Jays should have won the damn game.

Toronto didn’t allow the Angels to score that inning, and not surprisingly the Angels were able to score the next inning and “win” the game.

I didn’t see the play, but I believe the rule is that a defender in the act of fielding or throwing is entitled to the baseline. So if by doing nothing but run straight on the baseline Escobar blocked Callaspo in the act of throwing, yeah, Escobar is out.

Check the play there. Escobar didn’t even cross paths with Callaspo. He was looking around to see if the SS was going to cut him off for the ball or not. He didn’t block him in the act of throwing the ball. Callaspo didn’t even field the ball until after Escobar had already passed him. He had a clear throwing line.

The Baseball Idiot - Apr 10, 2011 at 1:50 PM

I’ve umpired for over 30 years at various levels, and that’s textbook interference. He impeded Castillo’s ability to field the ball, as he had to wait on it, and then rush the throw,and that’s exactly what interference is.

The runner is not entitled to the baseline at that moment, as fielding the ball takes precedence over that.

Good call by the umpire.

Mark - Apr 10, 2011 at 2:26 PM

I’m looking at the official rules and I don’t buy it.

“6.05(m)A preceding runner shall, in the umpires judgment, intentionally interfere with a fielder who is attempting to catch a thrown ball or to throw a ball in an attempt to complete any play:”

Escobar didn’t slow down or speed up, so it’s not intentionally interference here.

Rule 6.05(m) Comment: The objective of this rule is to penalize the offensive team for deliberate, unwarranted, unsportsmanlike action by the runner in leaving the baseline for the obvious purpose of crashing the pivot man on a double play, rather than trying to reach the base. Obviously this is an umpires judgment play.”

This is the simple version of the above rule. He didn’t leave baseline, so again, it doesn’t apply here. I realize it’s not a DP situation, but the point stands that it wasn’t an intentional interference.

This is the only base runners interference I could find on MLB’s site that includes all the rules. So while I respect your opinion as an umpire for 30 years, I’d like you to show me which rule Escobar violated. Because according to the base runner rules, Escobar had to intentionally interfere with the runner (which he didn’t, as he neither sped up or slowed down to block Callaspo) or leave the base line (which he didn’t).

The Baseball Idiot - Apr 10, 2011 at 4:13 PM

Your ability to make a call like that while watching on a television screen with no experience instead of being 10 feet away with school training and actual game experience astounds me. It really does.

The runner does not have to touch the fielder for it to be interference. All he has to do is interfere with the fielders ability to cleanly field the ball, which is what happened.

There is more to umpiring than reading it from the rulebook. There is the actual application of it as it happens in a game. That’s why those guys spend years in high school and college ball, then go to an umpiring school, and then spend years in the minors. To get actual experience applying the rulebook to actual game situations and make those calls on the field. You know, instead of letting fans call in and make the calls instead.

Your ability to make that call better than the umpire did while you were watching television puts you up in rarefied territory. You should immediately apply for a position with the league.

I’m also done debating with you, because you are not going to listen to any opinon that doesn’t agree with you.

Kevin S. - Apr 10, 2011 at 5:33 PM

Jim Joyce agrees, it’s always easier to make the right call as a trained ump on the field instead of as a fan in front of a TV!

Mark - Apr 11, 2011 at 7:29 AM

You’re telling me I won’t listen to other people’s opinion, when you’re the one who’s making the sarcastic comments at my expense? I think you have it backwards.

All I asked you to do, was show me in the rulebook where it backs up what you’re saying. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m saying I don’t see what rule you can be applying. As an umpire, it’s your job to apply the rules, not enforce the oh so common “unwritten rules” of baseball.

Which is why I even quoted the rulebook to make my argument stronger. Because that’s the difference between an argument and an opinion. An argument is backed up by facts, and an opinion is not.

I’m not being a dick here, I’d legitimately like to know what/where the rule is. And if I’m wrong, if you can make an argument to show me I’m wrong, I’ll be the first to apologize. But you haven’t done that, which is why I don’t think you’re right.

And you’ll probably tell me it’s irrelevant but Law called it the wrong call as well, and he has no bias in this situation.

I’m a Jay’s fan; have been all my life. In no way does the call go in Ecobar’s favor, though. An experienced ump knows; the runner can’t impede the fileder. In this case it’s a sin of omission by Escobar; he did nothing but run to his base, BUT he shoulda got out of the way of the fielder. I think Mark, you’re being influenced by the common practice of runners blocking the view of a ground ball by running between a grounder and fielder waiting for the ball. In this case Escobar did more than block the view; he held up the fielder by keeping to the baseline. Pity, because the way the Angle’s field it’s likely the throw is still an error. He’s out. So sad, but so so true. Sigh…

Los Manos de Piedra sits out with a bum stem and the Feesh put up the universal symbol for nothing in the error column of the box score for the second straight night. Javier Vazquez turns in a “gritty” (sportstalk code word for “lousy but well-intentioned”) performance, giving up “only” four earned runs “early” (as if they depreciated over the course of the game) but then “settled down” (and/or the Astros ran out of enthusiasm for kicking an old dog with dysplasia) to turn the game over to the boolpen for four innings and “got his first win with the Feesh” (giftwrapped, and just in time).

Meanwhile, the Iron Giant returned and crushed a 400-foot RBI double; yet another one of Larry Beinfest’s patented scrapheap rescues, one Dobbs (who simply must be related to Bob Dobbs, better known as Slack Master Bob, ave, ave, and might be this year’s Cody Ross), who crushed the tying dinger and generally covered himself with glory, and might very well be the second coming of Lou Gehrig, since he no doubt considers himself the luckiest man on Earth for being reincarnated as a baseball player instead of, say, a Wisconsin public employee, but it’ll take some deep hypnosis to figure that one out, and Logan Morrison continues to get on base at an inhuman clip.

Feesh go for an unprecedented three game sweep at Enr…heh heh, Minute Maid (Made?) park today after three days of Mexican food. I hope they made it out to Otilia’s on Long Point for the chile en nogada and a cup of the incomprehensibly wonderful sopa de crema de poblano while they were there. Let some unnamed division rivals eat horrible horsemeat and Velveeta sandwiches.

Incidentally, today’s ATH Express shows all the telltale signs of blog creep, though without the prefatory hot oil massage. There’s even a crumpled aluminum foil wrapper over here, which indicates that someone got ahold of the waffer theen meent before I checked in. Craig is clearly living on borrowed time, but that’s only because he clearly does not know how to delegate this to Short, Gleeman, Harks or Silva – any one of whom could spell him long enough to take da wife to dinner or the kids to the playground on weekends . He makes squeaky, utterly unconvincing noises about being cognizant of a family somewhere just outside of the digital immunodeficiency bubble he seems to be living in, but if his wife finally gets fed up with sitting in the car in the driveway with the kids waiting for him to come out within the promised one more minute and throws a pot at his head because he’s not paying enough attention he will discover, to his chagrin, that the bubble is virtual only.

Our Island of Misfit Toys get Misfittier all the timeEven I have trouble figuring it out at times, but I guess if our beloved $206M team gets by with putting $91M on the field that’s gotta be okay til the trade deadline. Sometimes you have to drive the ’97 Taurus when the Mercedes is in the shop.

“Eluded Rasmus’ Glove”, as in it hit in the middle of his glove while he was standing still. I guess “eluded” isn’t technically incorrect, much like Rodney King “eluded” the LAPD batons, but where I come from that is an error. Plus it is an error in all three “A” levels of baseball, the rookie league, any semi-pro division, American Legion Ball, All levels of High School, to Little League Scorekeepers across the nation, and in every backyard where there are 3 players, a pitcher, a batter and what is commonly, but apparently not in center field for St. Louis, a fielder.

Completely agree. There was no dive and no collision with a player or the wall, so why isn’t that an error? Is the scorekeeper just afraid of the wrath of Tony LaRussa? That should be an error 100 times out of 100. Great AB by Miggy though, and that ball probably gets out of a few yards around the league. Still, it should have been caught.

“how does a 1-0 game with only 11 total hits between the teams last three hours and five minutes?”

Because Gio is on the mound, which means LOTS of mound visits due to lots of deep counts. Still, the A’s take 2 of three despite scoring just 4 runs in those three games. Yielding 3 will do that. Against the Twins, the White Rabbit, Mr. Anderson, and Gio looked like the young version of the Phillies rotation, dazzling the Twins hitters and Billy Beane’s publicist. Equally as important the A’s have a working back end of the bullpen in Grant Balfour to set up Fuentes’ close. After the early struggles hopefully the great starts can be closed out with Bailey-like frequency, because those starts won’t always be this great.